Average spend of Chinese Millennial Traveler — Photo by WYSE Travel Confederation

The Chinese Millennial Traveller report, the third in WYSE Travel Confederation's Millennial Traveller series, provides a unique insight into the habits, spending, satisfaction levels and travel styles of Chinese travellers born between the early 1980s and 2000s.

The World Youth Student and Educational (WYSE) Travel Confederation has launched the Chinese Millennial Traveller report, the third in the Millennial Traveller report series. The report focuses on Chinese travellers born between the early 1980s and 2000s and reveals that tasty food, friendly locals, and free WiFi are the top three destination features.

The average trip spend for Chinese millennials travelling internationally was EUR 1,200, with 14% reportedly spending more than EUR 3,000.

Compared to other millennial travellers, Chinese millennials are particularly likely to experience visa problems; 28% of Chinese millennial travellers reported experiencing visa barriers versus 12.5% of other millennial travellers.

The overall expenditure of Chinese travellers reached USD 129 billion in 2013, and so the Chinese Millennial Traveller report offers a deeper demographic insight into the Chinese millennial traveller in order to support youth and student travel industry professionals serving the growing Chinese travel market.

The key findings of the report include:

Chinese millennial traveller behaviour

  • The level of bookings made with a smartphone or tablet are much higher than for youth travellers from other parts of the world
  • 57% use their smartphone four to five times a day, with 39% indicating that they check their phone every five minutes
  • The preferred use of the internet is for social media purposes (69%) and the majority use Chinese-language social networks (66%) over English-language social networks (34%)
  • 28% experienced visa difficulties, with the majority of difficulties experienced by travellers to the USA
  • The majority carry debit cards when they travel, but they prefer to pay with cash than with debit card or credit card.

Chinese millennial traveller attitudes

  • The top two motivations for travel are to increase knowledge and mental relaxation
  • 27% rely on family and friends for travel information
  • Almost half indicated that travel reviews 'often' have an effect on their travel decisions
  • 60% use online travel information sources compared to 37% who use offline sources
  • 84% indicated that they enjoy staying in hostels, and those that had reservations about hostels cited safety, lack of personal space and cleanliness as the main reasons why.

The Chinese Millennial Traveller report is available free of charge to WYSE Travel Confederation members and is available to purchase by non-members. To download the report or find out more about becoming a WYSE Travel Confederation member, visit http://www.wysetc.org.

About WYSE Travel Confederation

  • World Youth Student and Educational (WYSE) Travel Confederation is a global not-for-profit membership organisation dedicated to promoting and developing opportunities for the youth, student and educational travel industry.
  • Founded in 2006 and created from the merger of the Federation of International Youth Travel organisations (FIYTO) and the International Student Travel Confederation (ISTC) - both formed after World War II to inspire young people through international travel and to help remove cultural barriers - the confederation brings together 60 years of youth travel expertise.
  • Providing international travel experiences to over 10 million youth and students each year, WYSE Travel Confederation"s global community of over 800 members spans more than 120 countries from a diverse range of sectors.
  • From adventure tour operators to au pair agencies, cultural exchange programmes to language schools, hop-on-hop-off buses to student insurance and youth hostels to volunteer programmes, WYSE Travel Confederation is the world"s most powerful network of youth and student travel professionals, connecting key industry players with decision makers and government officials.
  • The Confederation is committed to understanding the ever-changing characteristics, motivations and needs of young travellers. By gathering, analysing and sharing important market intelligence with members, academics and government decision-makers, the unique fast-changing needs of the youth market is at the forefront of its activities as it seeks to accelerate the development of youth travel.
  • For more information, visit www.wysetc.org or follow the organisation on Twitter,Facebook and LinkedIn.